


The Whole is more than its Parts

by p_o_u_n_c_e_r



Series: Lady Alys's Out-Basket [2]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 02:24:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10754784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_o_u_n_c_e_r/pseuds/p_o_u_n_c_e_r
Summary: An example of a thank you note, with substantive value.





	The Whole is more than its Parts

Dear Captain Morozov,

May I begin by expressing my deepest personal gratitude and regard for your most informative communications regarding my new daughter-in-law and her family? I never, and could never have, anticipated my son's alliance with someone so removed from Imperial society. Your reports, while focused on military, economic, technological and political aspects of Jacksons Whole and House Cordonah, offer me the best, in some cases only, glimpse I've had of that unfamiliar hierarchy. Thank you for your accurate, brief, and complete reports.

That gratitude uppermost in your mind, I hope you will not find this suggestion impertinent or offensive. I strongly suggest that your current focus on those specific parts of your target system severely limits your perceptions of the Whole. Marriages, families, alliance and dynasties shape our times; indeed, they shape all times, histories and eras. I've recently been pleased to enjoy a short critical review of the video "dramas" popular on Komarr, in comparison to similar, and similarly popular, entertainments in the Whole. In both markets, the omnipresent themes of family tension, love, romance, trust, betrayal, and forgiveness dominate local storylines. I suggest, for your attention, that an artist's or literary critic's analysis of the Whole's most popular holovids would offer you a more complete appreciation of the dynamics at play in their society.

To that end, and only if you find this proposal useful, I attach a resume from a young woman of my slight acquaintance. She has recently returned from post-graduate education on Beta Colony, with an academic focus on portrayals of courtship and marriage in popular literature and media. I suggest that she, or someone similar of your choosing, be planted in a Komarran holo-production company. She would work up storyboards for a series of dramas involving, say, a Komarran Trade Fleet and Senior Shareholders' family, considering an alliance by marriage to a Great House of Jacksons Whole. If employed as creative researcher for the project she could move freely to and from our Empire and the Whole, and of course even more easily within Komarran society. She would develop for her drama, and your own edification, a much fuller appreciation of the likely -- and most unlikely --  twists and turns such interactions might take. There may, of course, be a junior officer already on your staff credentialed to undertake such a review. I suggest, though, an outside and distaff perspective would offer you the most novel and useful analysis. Too, a person who has been to Beta Colony -- who has "seen the elephant" as I understand that expression to be used in your own circles -- may be less likely to be "croggled" by the underlying assumptions made within other galactic societies than would be an officer who has been more or less confined within the Imperial Services.

I do try to observe the principle that no one should second-guess the man on the spot. Budgets and priorities constrain us all, and you must apply yourself as you see fit. I remain deeply thankful for the extra time and guidance you've offered about House Cordonah. I am in your debt, and I have hoped to begin repayment with this introduction and suggestion. However, you have only to ask to have any other of my resources deployed in recompense of your gracious assistance.

Gratefully yours,

 


End file.
